How to improve your IQ (without lying to yourself)
What the evidence supports, what brain apps overclaim, and a plan that is kinder than chasing points
People type “how to improve IQ” into Google the way thirsty people type “how to hydrate instantly.” Fair. Also: the internet will sell you a miracle before it sells you sleep.
Here is the version that survives contact with evidence.
What IQ is (and is not)
IQ is a test score. Useful. Incomplete. Noisy day to day. It is not a moral ranking, a destiny, or a personality.
If your plan is “raise my number by Friday,” you are shopping for fog. Scores move with sleep, anxiety, practice effects, and which test you took.
What actually tends to help
Schooling and hard domain practice still look better than most commercial brain-training promises. Exercise and sleep help cognition more reliably than another puzzle leaderboard. Reading hard books and taking feedback that can embarrass you remains undefeated.
Near transfer vs far transfer
Near transfer is real: practice a skill, get better at that skill and nearby ones.
Far transfer — train a game, raise general intelligence forever — is where ads get loud and meta-analyses get quiet. Simons et al. (2016) on commercial brain training. Melby-Lervåg and colleagues on working-memory training. Treat “this app raised my IQ 15 points” with the same skepticism you would bring to a late-night fitness infomercial.
A plan that is kinder than chasing points
1. Pick one hard skill you will actually use.
2. Force weekly output that can be graded or rejected.
3. Sleep like it is part of the training.
4. Revisit IQ only if you need it for something concrete. Do not let it narrate your identity.
Where IntelligenceMax fits
I build IntelligenceMax: adaptive reasoning practice. We do not claim it raises IQ. We care about transfer honesty.
Longer map: https://intelligencemax.ai/guide
OSF notes: https://osf.io/kja9b/
Getting sharper is allowed. Lying to yourself about what transferred is optional, and expensive.